Kusama Infinity

“Imagine if the unhappy Vincent van Gogh had finally, in late middle age, witnessed the acclaim that his work receives today. That’s the bittersweet story of Yayoi Kusama, the 89-year-old Japanese painter and sculptor whose social-media-friendly mirror rooms have made her the most-viewed female artist of all time.

“It’s vindication for a unique artistic vision that, according to the documentary Kusama - Infinity by Heather Lenz, created soft sculptures before Claes Oldenburg, multiples as wallpaper before Andy Warhol and mirrored rooms before Lucas Samaras. All three male pop artists would have seen Kusama’s work on the hot New York gallery scene of the 1960s, during her frustrating years trying to break into the American avant-garde. She had fled a conservative and wealthy Japanese family that actively discouraged her art-making, but for all her attention-seeking activities in New York she found notoriety rather than enduring respect or sales. She returned dispirited to Japan in the 1970s, eventually taking up residence in a mental hospital, and it was more than a decade before Japanese curators finally took note of her ongoing work.” - The Globe and Mail